


Make Happy

by substantial



Category: K-pop, SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, jeonghan's evil, seungcheol tries, that's basically it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 17:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7766821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/substantial/pseuds/substantial
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All he wanted was to know for sure that his friend was happy. He would be more reluctant to admit that he wanted to be the one to make him happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not Invisible Enough

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first story I've ever written, so I hope it's at least interesting. It'll start slow, so bear with me.

They were talking about girls again. They talked about girls quite often. It wasn’t something Seungcheol felt he could relate to. It never had been, and he knew that well. But he played along; as always, fitting in was in his best interests.

“And what about the leader, huh?”

Jun, sitting on his right, had nudged him.

“Hmm?”

“Long hair or short hair?”

One portrait in particular appeared in his mind. He almost laughed at himself. Instead, he recalled his previously mentioned best interests and willed it away.

“Uh, short hair,” he said, a hint of defeat in his voice.

As Seungcheol breathed a sigh of relief into the center of the circle they had formed in their small dorm, the wheel of torture spun onto its next victim, who sat directly opposite him. Arms crossed and legs tucked in, it was as though he was trying to make himself less visible.

“Jeonghan’s probably a bit biased towards long haired girls, right?” Hoshi chuckled.

“Oh god,” the second oldest member groaned. Not invisible enough.

“Not even a little?”

“No, skip me,” he said, smiling weakly, but with a firm tone in his voice.

“Why, you shy?”

“Sure, let’s go with that.” The smile was beginning to fade.

“Dude, I know you well enough to know you’re not shy,” Joshua piped in.

“I’d just rather not be a part of this conversation. It’s not my type of thing.”

The other members, ever respectful, ceased their prodding.

Seungcheol often found himself thinking back to that moment in particular. That’s the thing with Yoon Jeonghan. He’s shown himself to be an emotional person at times, and has always been the type to have many deep thoughts, even to the extent of overthinking. But he could never get too personal. He didn’t allow it to happen. Every time he tried to get him to open up a little, it was like he'd reflexively shut down. During practices, he's productive, and when placed in front of a camera, he performs well. At what point does the shift occur? It deeply upset Seungcheol that someone he cared about so much seemed so self-conscious, but he understood it a bit.

He had been guilty in the past of forming a sort of protective layer around himself that would prevent others from having an affect on his emotions. Whether you could attribute this mentality to teenage cynicism or not, one certainty is that he was scared. Not scared to place his trust in another person, but scared by the thought of having his trust abused. He often thought about his love going to waste. It gave him a horrible feeling. That Jeonghan could ever experience the same feeling made him feel sick.

Seventeen’s debut had been repeatedly delayed for so long that Seungcheol began to feel as though it was unlikely that it would ever actually happen.  Obviously, it happened, and with this event, his optimism returned. He had to wonder when Jeonghan lost his. At this point he thinks to himself, just for a short moment, that he might be overanalyzing the situation.

It could be projection, or it could be simple observation. All he wanted was to know for sure that his friend was happy. He would be more reluctant to admit that he wanted to be the one to make him happy.


	2. Lesson in Honesty

The word 'crush' seems so childish, but in Seungcheol's case, it's not inaccurate. He'd probably prefer the term 'attraction'. 

Jeonghan wasn't the first boy he found attractive. There was this other guy in high school that he thought was pretty cute – right up until he declared the following:

"I dunno, I just think gay guys are kinda gross. Lesbians are hot, though."

Seungcheol was terrible at maths, but he sure did learn the meaning of a 180.

It was another one of those dreaded early morning dance practices. Wake up at 2 am, and keep working until the sky regains colour. After a few back-to-back rounds of sluggish dancing, the members took their breaks, immediately gravitating towards their phones, like hordes of zombies.

Seungkwan began ad-libbing loudly in an attempt to fully wake himself up, and in turn, everyone else. Woozi dazedly mumbled something about needing to finish a song. Dino seemed irritatingly content with having to do hard exercise at three in the morning. Coups had to admire that kid. He isn't even old, but compared to some of these guys he feels like a grandpa.

Jeonghan sat with Joshua, who was showing him an American artist he'd found on YouTube. Seungcheol - the super-cool-and-definitely-not-desperate person that he is - gathered all of his willpower and sat next to Joshua instead of the longhaired boy.

"Who's that, then?"

"Oh, just a YouTube guy. You probably wouldn't have heard of him."

What an absolute hipster. Josh is nice though, and he might've persisted just to continue the conversation, but darn it, it was too early in the morning. The musician isn't even that good.

"He's really good!" said Jeonghan.

Well, fine then.

"Yeah, what's his name? I'll look him up," Coups chimed in with feigned enthusiasm.

"Since when are you into indie?" asked the American boy, with a suspicious tone.

"Uh, I try to listen to all kinds of music. Adds influences to my lyrics."

The other boy didn't seem entirely convinced, but he wasn't being untruthful, to be fair.

"Yo, Josh, come look at this!" bellowed Vernon embarrassingly in English from the other side of the room, his phone screen glowing in their direction. 

"Yup!" Joshua yelled back weakly, moving away from the other two boys, and very quickly putting the leader in a difficult situation. His mind rattled for something to say before the awkwardness really started to kick in, and all he could come up with was:

"Man, I'm tired."

"Me too."

It was awkward. Damn.

"Uh, do you really like that singer?" The older boy inquired.

"Do you?"

"I think he's pretty good."

"Really? I think he's a bit boring. Don't tell Jisoo that, though."

'Well, there's a lesson in honesty for you,' Seungcheol thought to himself.

"If you don't like it, why'd you say you did?" 

A hypocritical question, but he was curious to know the other member's reasons.

"Just easier to go along with it, I guess. It avoids disagreements."

"Disagreements aren't always a bad thing."

"Well, yeah, but I'd rather avoid them."

"Is it the group you're worried about?"

Jeonghan quietly scoffed.

"Are you my counsellor?" he said with a sly grin.

"I'm just asking."

"I know," the younger boy replied. "I get that you're just looking out for your members, but it really doesn't matter."

"Why doesn't it matter?"

A pause.

"Why should it?"

There was no response. As though by cue, they were promptly called for another series of practices, and the conversation ended, just like that.

It's not a problem; they'll pick up the conversation again at some point. Seungcheol will make sure of it.


	3. Last Laugh

Whether he prefers to call it an 'attraction' or not, Seungcheol is lying in bed, eyes wide open at one in the morning, thinking about Jeonghan like a teenager with a crush. Truthfully, it did feel a bit weird thinking about him in that way while they were sleeping in the same room. As well as Jeonghan, he also shared a dorm with Wonwoo, Mingyu, and Jun. Deep in thought, he was beginning to realise that he was never going to get anywhere with this boy without being more direct. 

With a girl, it'd be different. Everyone expects romance between the opposite genders. Hell, it's why there aren't any mixed groups around. If Jeonghan had been a girl, he'd have simply walked right up and asked him out a long time ago. There'd be no worry, no fear. Sure, there'd be nerves, but that's the case in any romantic situation. It just wouldn't have mattered.

‘Just had to be more difficult for me, huh,’ he mused to himself.

There are two reasons why Seungcheol is worried about Jeonghan's lack of openness. The first reason is that with so many members, closeness is essential if they're going to continue to work in harmony. He is the leader after all, and it is his duty to think about these things. The second reason, and perhaps the more dominant one, is that he likes this boy quite a bit.

He figured that if he was ever going to get Jeonghan to open up at all then, as is the case in any close relationship, he would have to trust the other person as much as he wants them to trust him. He had never come out to anyone before, and even if he wanted to, he wouldn't want to make a big deal out of it. He decided that he'd bring it up at the next opportunity – just give it a passing mention. He didn’t know when that next opportunity would be, but he was willing to wait as long as he needed to.

The next morning began with the usual early start followed by an image discussion with the stylists for all the members. Their second comeback was underway, and Coups had ditched his blond hair for a more natural black look. It was a bit plain, but looking around at some of the other members in the room, he felt quite lucky. He wasn’t sure what Chan’s hair was supposed to resemble, but hey, he seemed to like it, so no one made any comments on it.

“Hey, they’ve told me I’m going blond. Do you think I’d look good blond?” Jeonghan asked the leader with a nudge, interrupting his session of silent fashion policing.

‘You’d look good with anything,’ he wanted to reply.

“How blond are we talking?”

“Well, they’ll have to bleach the hell out of it first before they can dye it the right colour. It’ll be kinda like what you had.”

“Yeah, I think it’d work.”

'Work' is an understatement. Ever since the younger boy had started to grow out his hair, he had pictured him with various different hair colours. In his mind, all of them worked. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle seeing him looking more angelic than he already does.

“You’re not allowed to laugh at me when they bleach it, alright? It’s probably gonna look weird at first. Just ‘cause you’re older and all, it doesn’t mean you can laugh.”

“Of course not! I’d never laugh at you," said the older boy, giving him a comforting smile.

* * *

 

Three hours later, Jeonghan enters the dorm.

“Oh my god!” Seungcheol cackled, throwing his head back so forcefully he nearly concussed himself on the wall behind him.

“Is it that bad?”

“Oh god! So bright! I’m blind!” Mingyu teased, dramatically covering his eyes with his hands and waving them around like a maniac. Wonwoo joined in and did the same, making a string of pained noises.

“Whatever, jerks,” Jeonghan muttered, taking a sip from his water bottle. “It’s no problem, anyway. They said they’ll finish it on Thursday.”

“I think it’s already finished, man! It's a great look!” Seungcheol laughed, as Jeonghan rolled his eyes. 

“Hey, aren’t we filming that sports thing on Wednesday? The Idol Championships one?” Jun remarked with false innocence.

Jeonghan was motionless, and his face went from confusion, to realisation, and then to horror, and finally, to defeat.

“Right, then,” he said, exhausted. “Thanks for the kindness.”

“You know we’re only joking, man. It’s not that bad,” said Mingyu.

“Yeah, I know you are. It’s fine. I'm not mad.”

“You sure?” said Seungcheol, with genuine concern in his voice. “We didn’t mean to upset you or anything.”

Jeonghan slowly turned to face him.

“Nah, it’s cool," he replied calmly. He then poured the entire contents of his water bottle over the older boy’s head. “I can take a joke.”

And with that, he left the room, and left a stunned silence behind him. They heard him laugh as he walked down the corridor. Jun turned to Seungcheol, who sat with his mouth agape, dripping wet, and completely motionless.

“Uh, you did laugh first.”

'Goddammit,' he thought. 'Angel, my ass.'


	4. Wide Awake

A few hours later, having dried himself off and changed his clothes, Seungcheol made his way to the practice studio. He was still at a loss for words since what happened, but he wasn't upset. He certainly didn't want Jeonghan to be either.

They've always been very good at getting to work immediately, so the first practice round of the day began as soon as all the members were present. Afterwards, he was about to approach the longhaired boy, but the other boy actually began to walk towards him first.

"Okay, I’ll admit the water thing might've been a bit much," Jeonghan said, giggling slightly as he drew nearer, still visibly out of breath.

"But I guess I deserved it, right?" said the leader with a teasing smile.

"Oh, definitely, I'm not apologising or anything."

Both of them let out a small laugh.

"I did say I wouldn't laugh, so I'm sorry. I was just in a goofy mood."

"When are you not in a goofy mood?”

“Point made.”

“It's fine anyway, I really wasn't that mad. I was just getting even with you. And I think we're pretty much even now."

Seungcheol thought for a second, as he saw the other members begin to gather together for the second run-through.

"Well, I'll still make it up to you. Next time we go out for lunch, I'll pay for yours, how's that sound?"

"Ah, Cheol, you really don't have to do that."

"Really? Well, in that case I–"

"Thank you so much, man. You’re the best! Practice time, talk later, bye!"

Seungcheol gave a breathy laugh as Jeonghan ran to take up his starting position, whipping his hair into the older boy’s face as he turned around. At least they were still on good terms. He wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully if they weren’t. 

They finished practice earlier than usual in favour of getting a long night’s sleep; they’d have a long day ahead of them tomorrow, with various bits of filming and last minute photo shoots to be completed, all leading up to a comeback stage the following week.

Before he slept, Coups thought about how far he’d come; the whole group had made a long journey to get to where they are. While there were difficult times, he didn’t think he could be much happier than he is right now. As everyone else in the dorm snored away, he looked around thought to himself how much of a home this place had become for him. With that thought, he drifted off to sleep.

It was 3am, but Seungcheol didn’t know that. All he knew was that it was early as hell, and for some reason his body had decided that he should be awake.  
‘Great,’ he thought.

Now that his eyes were open, he took a glance around the small dorm, and what caught his eye was the silhouette of the boy in the bed to his right. He couldn’t make out much other than that he had his head down, and he was sitting completely upright. The boy looked up slightly, and Seungcheol instinctively closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. From how it looked, it wasn’t some sort of strange deep sleep habit. Jeonghan was clearly wide-awake. In fact, it didn’t seem like he had slept at all.

He briefly considered saying something (or whispering, rather) to the boy, but he didn’t know if he was awake because something was wrong, or if he just couldn’t sleep. If he were to ask why he’s awake, knowing Jeonghan, he’d just ask him the same question in return. It was too early in the morning for that.

He decided to mind his own business and try to go back to sleep, but with the worry that there was something wrong, it wasn’t peaceful. 

It took him over an hour to finally fall asleep, and every time he opened his eyes, the silhouette of the boy remained unchanged, in that same sitting position.


	5. Pep Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so like i've had the next two chapters saved on my computer for ages and never posted them lmao woOOpsie...... haven't written anything after that and probs won't but we'll see how it goes~

After an intense month of promotions and performances, their second comeback period was coming to a close. He knew it was too early, but Coups was beginning to feel a sense of security about Seventeen’s popularity, and just like the rest of the members, he was excited to see it grow.  
They had planned a meal in celebration of the end of their promotions, and as promised, Coups was paying for Jeonghan. There’s a lot of them, so they split into two booths, and Seungcheol took his seat next to Jeonghan along with Soonyoung, Jihoon, and Seokmin. The waiter promptly came over to hand out menus, and Jeonghan began to scan his while Seungcheol’s face begged a silent plea of “please go easy on my wallet”. The longhaired boy looked at the leader for a second, and then returned his eyes to the menu as a lazy, but smug smirk appeared on his face. One certainly not suited to an angel.  
Seungcheol took the moment to stare at the “angelic” boy’s face, just for a little while. Man, he looked so tired. And pretty. But mainly tired. They often made fun of the fact that Jeonghan is the sleepiest member of the group, but for someone who enjoys sleeping so much, he sure hadn’t been getting much sleep recently. Seungcheol had found out that Jeonghan’s instance staying awake through the early hours of the morning was not just one instance. He knew this because he had (slightly creepily) stayed awake to see if it would happen again after the first time he witnessed it.

“Seungcheol.” Jeonghan spoke up, making the leader jump.

“Hm?” 

“It’ll total up to like, 15,000 won for me, is that okay?”

“There’s the angel I like to see!”

“Oh, but dessert though…”

“Oh my god, get out of my life.”

They both laughed, and Seungcheol could feel Jeonghan’s breath on his face. Another thing that he felt was pathetic for being so affected by it.

Their laughed died down, and Seungcheol thought for a moment. Jeonghan was a hard person to read. One moment, he’d be so bright full of laughter, but in the next couple of hours, it wouldn’t be unusual if he decided that he didn’t want to talk to anyone for the rest of the day. It was like that even in the pre-debut stages. He could be sociable when he wanted to be. Otherwise, he was always off to the side, as if he didn’t know why he was there.

“Jeonghan, I’ve gotta ask. Are you sleeping alright?” He knew the answer, but he didn’t think the longhaired boy would give it to him.

“Yeah, why?” came the reply. Just as expected.

“You look really tired. Actually, you’ve been looking pretty worn out for a while now. You know me, I get worried.”

“Are you saying I look ugly?” Jeonghan laughed, while Seungcheol attempted to defend his words.

“No, no! I’m just saying—“

“I know, I know. I get that you have to worry about your members and all that, but I’m fine. I have a bit of sleeping trouble, but it’s not a big deal. Don’t waste your time worrying.”

“Well, for the record, I don’t believe you, but I won’t bother you about it. Just take care of yourself, okay?”

“Pay for my dessert, and I will,” the younger boy said with a devious smile. 

“Man, get out!”

They both laughed until Woozi interrupted them.

“What are you two so giggly for? We’re the younger ones here!”

That only made them laugh harder.

 

When they returned to the dorms, Coups was still thinking about Jeonghan. Their conversation hadn’t eased his worry at all. If anything, it increased it.  
That evening, the younger boy was wrapped up in his bed with his phone, the screen lighting up his exhausted face. Seungcheol approached him with a grin.

“Don’t tell me,” Jeonghan murmured. “I look tired.”

“Yeah,” the older boy chuckled. “You good?”

“I’m great,” he replied, with a look on his face that said, ‘I’m obviously not great.’

“Wanna chat?”

“Chat about what? This isn’t another leader pep talk, is it?” Jeonghan said, smirking a little.

“And what if it is?”

“I’ll throw my phone at you.”

As always, there’ll be no answers out of Jeonghan without being direct.

“Why is it that you’re in a good mood one moment, and then you suddenly hate everyone?”

Jeonghan seemed a little taken aback, but then he laughed.

“First of all, I always hate everyone,” he started with a joking tone. “Secondly, I think those are called emotions. I have them. They do stuff, I dunno.”

“Don’t be a sarcastic bastard, you know what I mean. It seems like you just shut down sometimes.”

“I agree with that. I can’t really help it though, so. Yeah.”

“You bottle stuff up a lot, right?”

“Yes, doctor,” Jeonghan mocked.

“Well, my diagnosis is you should talk about it more.” While Seungcheol was talking, Jeonghan sank further into his bed. “I don’t want you to get disconnected from the group because you feel like you have to deal with your issues alone.”

Jeonghan let out a muffled sigh, his mouth covered by his quilt.

“Gotcha,” he said indistinctly.

Seungcheol knew that he was overstaying his welcome, and decided to call it a day. Jeonghan probably wouldn’t listen, anyway.

“I’ll leave you alone now, then,” said the leader, turning his back to the sleepy boy. He began to head over to sit with some of the other members.

“Seungcheol.”

The older boy stopped, and turned back around.

“Yeah?”

“Uh, thanks for asking, though,” Jeonghan said, before rolling onto his side, facing away from him.

“No problem,” Coups responded, unable to contain his grin.


	6. Pure Venom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thats a fucken shit chapter title and it makes me cringe but that's what i called it at the time so we'll be ~authentic~ and ALSO out of date references bc That's How Long Ago This Was

Coups and Jeonghan were alone in the dorms. Tame your excitement.

It was the same place all thirteen members often gathered to have their personal discussions late at night. The two boys were sitting on the floor tapping away at their phones and somehow holding a conversation at the same time. Who said men can't multitask?

"No, I'm just saying, Stark has a point," Seungcheol argued firmly, "The Avengers have already caused so many deaths--"

"But the government will prevent them from making progress at all!" Jeonghan interrupted. "More people will die because villains won't be stopped!"

"The amount of people that died in the process of stopping the villains--"

Just then, Jisoo opened the door.

"Just a heads up, we need to be in the practice room in 20 minutes."

"Okay," the two boys on the floor said in unison.

Jisoo nodded his head, and closed the door.

"Ah, my phone just died," said Jeonghan.

"Poor you."

"Can I use yours for a sec? I only need to use Facebook."

"Don't have the app. Go get your charger."

"Can't. Lazy. Gimme. I'll just use Safari."

"Nah, you're trippin'."

"Why, what you hiding?"

"Oh, so many things. Stay away from my phone."

Jeonghan laughed, and began to walk towards Coups.

"Nope, get out of my house," the leader said, curling into a ball around his phone as Jeonghan inched closer.

"This isn't your house," Jeonghan challenged.

"It is now."

There was a brief stillness, and then Jeonghan leapt at Seungcheol and made a grab for the phone, missing by an inch as Coups pulled it into his chest.

In any other situation, the older boy would be having a minor heart attack over having Jeonghan so close to him, but right now, he wanted him as far away as humanely possible.

Jeonghan pushed Coups onto his back with a bit of effort, placed his knee on his chest, and resultantly on one of the older boy's fingers, causing him to cry out. The grip on the phone was weakened slightly, and Jeonghan snatched it out of his hands, giggling as he did so.

Seungcheol was a Pledis trainee for several years. He had experienced delay after delay before his debut, and he had been put through some of the most vigorous training imaginable to prepare him for the road ahead. But this, right here, is the most stressful situation that Seungcheol has even been in.

The leader looked on in defeat as Jeonghan stood back up scrolled through his apps to find Safari. God, he hoped he had closed all his tabs.

"Hey, what's Grindr? I think I’ve heard of it before."

Shit, that's worse than the tabs.

"Listen, I'll go get your charger, give me my phone."

Seungcheol stood up and made another reach, but Jeonghan was too fast. He watched as Jeonghan scrolled through the app. He just kept tapping, and tapping, and his smile slowly shifted. Seungcheol felt like crying.

Jeonghan looked like he was struggling to find something to say. He just kept staring blankly at the phone screen. He wasn’t even scrolling anymore. Seungcheol reached out and took his phone back, and the longhaired boy didn’t resist. As the older boy sat down again, Jeonghan spoke up.

"Are you gay, Seungcheol?"

The question was met with silence. Did he even need to ask that question? 

"I mean, I won't press,” said the younger, “But you can tell me if you are." 

Jeonghan looked like he was considering leaving the room on that note, but instead he sat down on the opposite side of the room. The dorm was silent, save for the sound of Seungcheol’s breathing, which had gotten heavier in the past few seconds. He took a few seconds to compose himself before he began to speak.

"That's not cool, y'know," said Seungcheol, biting the inside of his cheek.

"What?"

"You're forcing me to tell you."

"I just said I’m not pressing."

"You saw the app. And then you sat back down and made it awkward."

Jeonghan had a slight look on surprise on his face.

"That wasn't my intention. I didn't wanna bother you about it, so I stopped talking."

"It came across as a guilt trip to me."

"Wow, do you have to analyze everything? And what would you be guilty for?”

"Listen, not everybody cool with it, that's why I don't go round telling everyone about it. And by the way! You can't just take people's stuff! That ain’t right!"

"Well, I’m cool with it,” Jeonghan said, almost mumbling, as though he was trying to find the right words. “I don't hate you for it or anything."

Seungcheol looked incredulous. If anything, he should be the one full of hatred. Jeonghan sighed.

"I'm sorry, alright? Shouldn’t have done that. I'm sorry."

"Whatever. I’ll rip your hair out if you tell anyone. And then you'll have no fans."

It was a partly humorous comment, but it was delivered with a hint of spite, and Seungcheol didn't even realize how personally the younger boy took it.

"What, and I only have fans because of my hair? Don't take out your angst on me."

"I don't imagine them being a fan of your shitty personality."

“Fuck off, Seungcheol," Jeonghan spat, standing up to leave the room. 

Seungcheol had never previously seen the look on his face at that moment. It was pure venom. It shut him right up.

"Your problems aren’t mine. Get over yourself."

Jeonghan left, slamming the door behind him with unnecessary force. He left Seungcheol behind, and left him alone with his fury, as the older boy realized that he had just managed to piss off the only person who knew his secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry to leave y'all like this woOops, me a year ago sure was in for the Angst! heheh


End file.
